Crime trend Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Crime trend - Essay Example This system of punishment has evolved over the centuries from barbaric methods to correctional ones that would help the offender to get rid of his anti-social tendencies and get rehabilitated into the society where he was earlier a misfit. Public attitudes towards an offender have changed but are not altogether different from what it was, that of a sinner, in earlier times. This is important as it would help one chart the course of the changes in the criminal justice system. One also needs to take into account the changes that have taken place in the society while examining the criminal justice system. These may include the pervasiveness of technology in every aspect of the modern life. Courts and the police too have begun to take into account the evidence and assistance offered by technology to the extent that it is a part of modern life in every respect at this point of time in history. The scaffold in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter represents what the Puritan syst em of justice in America was at a certain point of time in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The criminal justice system has come a long way from accusing a person without having a proper legal framework. It has also enshrined in this framework the notion of equality that should be the basis of justice in any civilized country. This has been compounded by the expectations of the public in recent years from the criminal justice system where it has become an electoral in almost every country in the world. The nation state has thus been instrumental in creating an environment where everybody would be judged through a secular and modern code of law and order that enables equality in justice and punishment. Equality is however, not always the case when it comes to the distribution of justice. Racial profiling is one of the most important obstacles in the process of criminal justice. This involves the process whereby people of color are discriminated against while the process of just ice is carried out. This may happen on a road where a person of color is stopped just because of their race. This represents deep rooted attitudes of racial superiority that is a part of certain sections of the police (Three faces of Racial Profiling, n.d.). This is an example of how race impinges on the institution of justice in everyday life. This may then extend to include proceedings at courts where a person of color is discriminated against when it comes to credibility, especially when pitted against people who are of White races. This can then be extended to the situation of poor people, those who are often not able to afford lawyers for themselves. The trend of racial profiling has decreased in the past few decades; however, the situation of poor people has not radically improved. This can then also be connected to the situation of people who are doubly deprived or dispossessed. This refers to the condition of poor people of color in the United States of America. They are the n at the receiving end of both their race and class position as a result of prejudices. The failures of the criminal justice system in several cases can be attributed to the rising frustration and helplessness that is felt by these communities in relation to the attitudes of the American middle classes and legal system. This can be seen in the rising number of people who feel that joining a gang may be their only way out of a system